A story recently floated by the Associated Press raised eyebrows -- would Senate Democrats try to filibuster Alberto Gonzales? The answer is a resounding no.
RAW STORY found no one who would confirm the report -- that Sen. Durbin and Sen. Kennedy had pushed for a filibuster. Kennedy's office said they'd read the story but didn't know anything about it; Durbin's press secretary's line went to voicemail, indicating either he was on the line or away from his desk.
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Other Senate offices -- including Sen. Reid and liberal bulwark Sen. Byrd -- who would likely be aware and perhaps participate in such a filibuster, since both have expressed serious concerns about the nominee -- said they'd heard nothing about it.
As did Tracy Schmaler, the Democratic press secretary for the Judiciary Committee, where all eight Democratic senators voted against Gonzales at his hearing.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he expected "25 to 30" Democrats to vote against the nominee, slightly short of the up to 40 predicted by a senior Senate aide who spoke with RAW STORY earlier Tuesday.
Excerpts from the AP story follow. The story has been changed and corrected at the link.
Senate Democrats are considering filibustering Alberto Gonzales' nomination to be attorney general over his role in developing the Bush administration's policies on treating foreign detainees.
No final decision has been made yet, but at least two Democrats — Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., and Democratic Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois — planned to urge the Democratic caucus Tuesday to consider filibustering Gonzales' nomination, said a Senate Democratic aide, who spoke on conditions of anonymity.
A filibuster, a parliamentary tactic for delaying Senate action, would require Republicans, who hold a 55-44 majority in the Senate, to win over at least five Democrats — or four Democrats plus Vermont Sen. James Jeffords , an independent — to put Gonzales in office.
Democrats were surprisingly united in opposing Gonzales in the Senate Judiciary Committee, something that was not achieved when they voted on current Attorney General John Ashcroft.
The aide, who did not want to be named because discussions were being held in private, said Democrats believe Gonzales is directly linked with prisoner abuses that occurred at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that allowing his confirmation would be akin to supporting the mistreatment.
Whether or not a filibuster is mounted, a vote by the Senate on Gonzales' confirmation will not occur until at least Thursday, after Bush's State of the Union speech Wednesday night, GOP senators said. They said Democrats don't want to give Bush a success to talk about in his first State of the Union speech of his second term.
"They want the bully pulpit all the way up to and after that to try to taint this nominee with the perceived sins of the Bush administration," said Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas.
